Marcus Forss took another major step on his road to recovery from a frustrating spell with injuries as he completed 82 minutes of Middlesbrough under-21's Premier League International Cup defeat to Lyon.

In a tight and evenly-matched contest at the Riverside, the French side's second string came out victorious after Romain Perret headed them into a first-half lead. Boro had their chances in the game, with Ajay Matthews and George Gitau going close with efforts, while Forss should have bagged one for himself too. George McCormick was denied by an excellent save in stoppage time. It meant Mark Tinkler's side were beaten in their opening contest of the competition.

The main story of the night, however, was Forss' major step up. Coming after he played 60 minutes for against Aston Villa's U21s on Friday evening, the Finn added another 82 minutes to the legs as Michael Carrick and his first-team coaching staff watched on.

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The first half saw Boro struggle to make the ball stick as much as they might have liked in the final third. The result was little opportunity to work Forss onto the ball. He worked hard in and out of possession to try and create openings for himself, while, as you might expect against under-21 players, he won his fair share of aerial duels.

Boro came out in the second half showing far more purpose and intent to their attack. It helped work Forss onto the ball a lot more, though clear openings at goal for Boro were not quite coming. Perhaps showing the rust that he's playing these games to iron out, when McCormick's cross came to him unmarked at the far post, he headed over from close range in an effort he ought to have finished. Just moments before that he'd been unlucky not to win a penalty too when taking a boot to the face.

In general, it was a far livelier second half performance, with 1,033 Boro supporters turning up to the Riverside to back the next generation. With Gitau seeing a long-range effort tipped wide and McCormick thwarted with an excellent late save by Mathias Da Silva, Tinkler's side were a tad unfortunate to be on the losing side.

However, with Carrick watching on as many other first-team hopefuls such as Sol Brynn, Harley Hunt and Law McCabe also played, the big story of the evening was another really positive step for Forss as he looks to regain his first-team spot in the weeks ahead. as for the Under-21s, they're back in action on Saturday when they host Nottingham Forest in the Premier League 2 at Heritage Park where they're looking for a third straight league win.